Justice minister says PKK was behind terror attack in İzmir

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ has announced that it was the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which masterminded a terrorist attack in the western province of İzmir on Thursday, adding that 18 people have been detained in connection to the attack so far.

A car bomb attack near a courthouse in İzmir claimed the lives of two people and injured several others on Thursday afternoon.

“The order for the attack came from the PKK. We have no doubt about that,” Bozdağ told reporters on Friday.

The minister said the perpetrators of the attack have been identified, but he declined to reveal their names due to security concerns.

Bozdağ said a large-scale investigation has been launched into the attack and that 18 people have been detained thus far.

He added that two police officers, three lawyers and two others injured in the blast are still undergoing medical treatment.

One of the victims of the Thursday’s attack was a police officer, while the other was a courthouse employee.

Turkey faces multiple security threats. It has been hit by a series of bombings over the past 18 months, some of them blamed on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), others on the PKK.

The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), an offshoot of the PKK, last month claimed responsibility for two attacks in İstanbul and Kayseri that killed around 60 people.